Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
This was a moment in our history I won’t ever forget.
Living in the midst of the ongoing, relentless attacks on Black people in this country ain’t easy. We all try to find ways to stay sane, and we need them even more in these days of ICE, MAGA and a President and his dumpsters who don’t even try to hide their KKKlanism. I dive more and more into music, which helps soothe and heal my soul and for fun I’m a women’s basketball fan. I also cherish my memories of moments in time. One of them that never fades in my mind was that moment when Barack Obama, a Black man, became President of the United States. This was something I thought I’d never live to see. Today is the anniversary of that moment. I don’t allow anything to tarnish my joy in remembering. All the haters in the world cannot ever erase it. My hope is that future generations will have a chance to experience a similar moment (fingers crossed for a Black woman next time).
Won’t forget this moment either:
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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America honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. every January with words we admire and actions we avoid. Folks quote his dream but ignore his warnings. They celebrate the speech while overlooking the moral mandate. This country nods and smiles at “I have a dream” and turns away from the logic that insists on living it.
If Dr. King were alive today and looking around at this country, he would not rise as a cultural motif, a mural, a name on street signs in the ‘hood, a quote in a school hallway, or a safe symbol of unity.
Dr. King would rise as a moral indictment of a nation that loves his words but despises his demands. A nation that recites “I have a dream” while gutting voting rights. That celebrates nonviolence while militarizing police, ICE agents, and borders. That praises his courage while criminalizing protest. That invokes his name while slashing healthcare, trapping an entire generation under student-loan debt, funding endless war, and building an immigration regime that hunts families through neighborhoods like fugitives.
MLK would look at a country that pretends to be a democracy while courts are captured, elections are undermined, truth is treated as optional, and power is consolidated in the hands of the wealthy and the armed. He would look at an American press that keeps laundering lies as “both sides” and calling authoritarianism just another opinion.
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In the final hours of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal holiday honoring the Civil Rights-era icon whose activism paved the way for the full civil rights of African Americans, the Trump White House issued a proclamation honoring Dr. King’s legacy and indelible contributions to the United States.
“Today, we honor the noble work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose commitment to justice paved the way to the full realization of the American promise,” read the proclamation signed by President Donald Trump and released by the White House Office of Communications on Monday night.
The presidential act came several hours after the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization, rebuked Trump for initially failing to recognize the King federal holiday through a statement, proclamation, or participation in any activities commemorating the holiday.
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A civil rights lawsuit claims that town leaders and police officials in Clark Township oversaw racially discriminatory traffic stops and harassment of Black and non-white motorists. The Grio: New Jersey town faces state lawsuit claiming mayor ordered police to “keep Black people out”
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A state civil rights lawsuit filed this week accuses a New Jersey suburb and its past and present officials of directing local police to discriminate against Black and other non-white motorists.
The complaint, brought by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the state Division on Civil Rights, alleges that former mayor Salvatore “Sal” Bonaccorso, suspended police chief Pedro Matos, and current police director Patrick Grady oversaw discriminatory policing in Clark Township, a community about 27 miles south of Manhattan. The lawsuit claims town leadership “systematically discriminated against and harassed Black and other non-white motorists.”
State officials argue the conduct went far beyond isolated incidents, pointing to years of traffic stop data showing Black drivers were pulled over at significantly higher rates than white drivers, despite making up a small percentage of the township’s population.
According to the attorney general’s office, traffic stop data from 2015 to 2020 showed that Black drivers were pulled over roughly 3.7 times more often than white drivers, while Hispanic motorists were stopped about 2.2 times more than white motorists; disparities the complaint argues reflect racially biased enforcement rather than neutral public safety practices.
The suit also points to a whistleblower’s 2020 recordings alleging Bonaccorso and other officials used racial slurs while discussing policing strategies to “keep Black people out” of Clark. The township previously agreed to a $400,000 settlement with the whistleblower after the recordings came to light, though the dispute only became public later.
NJ.com published the secret recordings, which are available below.
WARNING: Racial slurs and other offensive language are audible in these recordings:
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The Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS series created by Sonia Manzano returns Monday with new episodes spotlighting Black cowboy culture, hair as self-expression, and everyday Bronx life. The Grio: ‘Alma’s Way’ Season 3 brings Black Cowboy history, hair identity, and Bronx life to PBS Kids
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When ‘Alma’s Way’ returns on Monday, the Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS series arrives for Season 3 with stories rooted in history, identity, and everyday moments that help young viewers make sense of the world around them. From Black cowboy culture to hair as self-expression, the stories unfold amidst the vibrant backdrop of the Bronx.
Created by ‘Sesame Street’ alum Sonia Manzano and produced by Fred Rogers Productions, ‘Alma’s Way’ has always centered cultural specificity without flattening it into lessons. Manzano says that approach comes naturally when you’re committed to authenticity.
“The Bronx has so many different kinds of people in it,” Manzano said. “If we’re going to show an authentic place, we have to show the authenticity of all the people who live there.”
While the show’s main family is Puerto Rican, Manzano says the neighborhood itself demands a broader lens. “There’s so much happening there,” she said. “A lot of bodegas are run by people from Bangladesh, usually, as opposed to Puerto Ricans when I was a kid. But there are still bodegas. It’s rich, and we’d be fools not to take advantage of that.”
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Voices & Soul
“… anywhere in appalachia/
is about as far/
as you could get/
from our house/
in the projects… “
- Frank X Walker
“Affrilachia”
by Black Kos Editor, Justice Putnam
When I played with Cottonmouth way back in the mid-70’s, Los Angeles clubs like the Starwood, the Troubadour and the Whiskey a Go Goo called us a San Francisco band, when we played clubs in San Francisco, they called us a band from Chico, even though we had a huge 5000 sq ft practice studio in Santa Rosa and a sweet 3500 sq ft basement recording studio in the Tenderloin. When we were on tour opening for the Doobie Brothers with The Pure Prairie League, venues called us a California band. That is probably closer to what we were, but we all called ourselves a West Coast band because we had a lot of percussion, two drum kits, two lead guitars with the bassist and rhythm guitar hitting on a syncopated beat that gave us a vague reggae sound that was intoxicatingly danceable.
We purposefully avoided the then current and recently former sundown towns while on tour, since our group and following were multi-racial and we not only hated bigots, we genuinely feared for our audience’s safety.
I’m pretty sure, if we were again in our 20’s, touring dive bars, clubs and stadiums across these United States, we would be regularly detained by the modern day Gestapo, ordered to show our papers and beat down for not responding fast enough.
I played some solo shows in Europe and Latin America in my early 40’s. I even drilled water wells for schools in Honduras for UNICEF in the mid-80’s, and I can report with tangible knowledge, the School of the Americas-trained military “banana republic” juntas from back in the day, were more moral and thoughtful, were more qualified even in making the trains run on time, than this pedo protection racket currently running the country into the ground.
- JP
thoroughbred racing
and hee haw
are burdensome images
for kentucky sons
venturing beyond the mason-dixon
anywhere in appalachia
is about as far
as you could get
from our house
in the projects
yet
a mutual appreciation
for fresh greens
and cornbread
an almost heroic notion
of family
and porches
makes us kinfolk
somehow
but having never ridden
bareback
or sidesaddle
and being inexperienced
at cutting
hanging
or chewing tobacco
yet still feeling
complete and proud to say
that some of the bluegrass
is black
enough to know
that being “colored” and all
is generally lost
somewhere between
the dukes of hazzard
and the beverly hillbillies
but
if you think
makin’ ’shine from corn
is as hard as kentucky coal
imagine being
an Affrilachian
poet
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WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
